


The Tanuki Whisperer

by C_Inferno



Category: Love Live! School Idol Project
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-26
Updated: 2017-06-26
Packaged: 2018-11-19 09:19:12
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,975
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11310399
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/C_Inferno/pseuds/C_Inferno
Summary: Nozomi adopts a dog she can’t control and Eli is a dog trainer and help Nozomi is too gay for this.





	The Tanuki Whisperer

This had been the right decision—she swore it to herself.

Sometime in the late afternoon, as she reclined in her couch with her laptop and enjoying a hot cup of tea, she received an urgent email from Rin. Certain it was just another cat meme, Nozomi’s first inclination was to ignore it. Then her cellphone buzzed from across the room and she begrudgingly pulled herself from her comfortable position and saw that Rin was calling her.

“Nozomi-chan!” Rin’s started before Nozomi had even said hello. “Nozomi check your email! I swear to god it’s not another cat meme it’s important!” and then she hung up. Sighing to herself and beginning to question her decision to give Rin her number, Nozomi returned to her laptop and pulled up the email.

It’d been forwarded a few times from Honoka to Nico and then to Rin before appearing in her inbox. Something about a dog, from the title of the email. She clicked and a photo appeared of a powerful looking dog with its tongue lolling out the side of its mouth in what Nozomi could only describe as a smile. She knew Honoka volunteered her weekends at an animal shelter and wouldn’t be above sending them all pictures of prospective adoptees. About to close the email, Nozomi realized there was text at the bottom of the photo and her heart sank.

“Hes been here 2 long there gonna put him down!!! GUYZ HELP11!!!!” The lack of attention for proper grammar and punctuation indicated that Honoka had written the body of the email and Nozomi called her immediately.

Much like Rin, Honoka cut Nozomi off. “Oh good you must have gotten my email! So can you help?”

“Which shelter is this?”

“Are you going to save him, Nozomi-chan?”

“Which shelter, Honoka.”

Two and a half hours later, Nozomi was pulling into the Saint Francis Animal Care Center. Apparently the dog she was there to rescue was scheduled to be put to sleep because he’d been there too long. Honoka had informed her that he’d been adopted a few times but always came back and the shelter couldn’t keep him there anymore.

With Honoka’s blessing, the shelter staff didn’t seem concerned that Nozomi had never had a dog nor had any experience with an animal of such size and stature (which wasn’t necessarily true—she’d pet a cow once!). Nozomi was asked basic things—how much space could she provide, could she afford vet care, did she have a fenced backyard. After she’d paid the fee, the woman at the front desk all but shoved the Rottweiler’s leash into Nozomi’s hands and off they went.

This had been the right decision—she repeated that mantra as she loaded the humongous Rottweiler into the back of her car, which he certainly did not fit in. She repeated it as he trampled the clothes and backpack she didn’t think to remove beforehand, once at a red light when the dog barked out the window she’d rolled down to relieve some of the unexpectedly ripe dog-smell, and now, she was repeating it as the probably-145lb Rottweiler dragged her across the parking lot of the pet store.

The double doors had barely parted when the dog barreled through, causing Nozomi’s shoulders to crash into them. Junai, as she had taken to calling the dog, dragged Nozomi helplessly in toe as he investigated everything around them with gusto.

“Hello,” welcomed the brunette cashier, who Nozomi wished with all her might had not seen the spectacle she was causing.

“H-hello,” came Nozomi’s winded reply. Junai urged them both forward, and there wasn’t any stopping him. He sniffed everything in sight and it wasn’t until he began to squat that Nozomi knew why.

“I’m so sorry!” she nearly screamed. “Junai, no! I-I’ll clean this up, I swear. Just…” her thoughts were all over the place, somewhere between embarrassment and wanting to vanish from existence. “Where are the paper towels?”

“It’s ok, it’s ok! These things happen all the time, don’t worry. They’re straight down the main aisle on the left,” the cashier informed sweetly, leaning over the counter just enough that she could comfortably point the direction Nozomi needed to go.

“Thank you…I…I’m so sorry, I just got him and I—I’ll be right back!”

~

Since her last class decided to cancel, Eli didn’t have much to do for the remaining hour of the day. Truth be told, she was beyond ready to go home. Her previous client’s Great Pyrenees had been an exhausting venture to tackle at 6 in the evening. The dog herself was fine, but the owner…

She wondered how many times the woman would say that her dog was just too stupid to learn or that she would never be able to perform outside of the training environment. Pessimism had no place in dog training, and Eli was determined to make a model out of that big puffball, if only to shut the owner up.

“Ayase to the front register, please—Ayase to the front.”

She’d been in the middle of facing miscellaneous things that she found askew in the dog grooming aisle when she heard her name echo in the store. First, she pulled out her phone to look at the time—7:16—and then she meandered up to the front.

“What’s up, Hanayo?” she asked.

“There’s a customer here who needs some help,” she replied with an uncharacteristically pronounced grin. “Badly.”

“Oh? Where is she?” Eli asked, looking around but seeing nobody in the store that would’ve needed help. What she found instead was a revolting mound of dog feces. Her lip curled in disgust and she hurried into the supply closet for a rag and floor cleaner. Upon her return, she found a woman already bent over the foul smelling deposit and picking it up as quickly as she could.

“Ah, here’s the dog trainer now,” Hanayo chirped as soon as Eli was within view. From the ground, making hurried strokes with cheap paper towels from the sanitation station, the girl looked up and blushed.

“Hello,” she said shamefacedly.

“Hi,” Eli began as she spritzed the ground with the cleaner. “Here, let me help you.”

Avoiding eye contact, the girl stammered a “thank you” and insisted that she could clean it by herself and that Eli needn’t trouble herself.

“I’m so sorry,” she heaved. “I just got this dog and I think I’m in way over my head.”

“Well, you made the right choice in coming here today,” Eli praised as she helped the young woman up off the floor. “Let me go ahead and toss this stuff, ok? I’ll be right back. I’d like to talk to you about a few things if you don’t mind.”

~

Nozomi hoped that this whole endeavor wouldn’t go noticed by more people aside from the cashier and the groomer she met shortly after, but as soon as she saw the dog trainer turn the corner she wished she knew how to evaporate.

When the trainer knelt down next to her, Nozomi’s whole body heated uncomfortably. She wasn’t sure why, but she had expected the trainer to be a man. A man would’ve been easier to deal with, because the first thing she noticed when she laid eyes on the tall blonde was how incredibly attractive she was. Leaning over a big pile of shit was not a way to make a good first impression.

“First of all,” the trainer began, offering her hand. “I’m Eli Ayase and, as Hanayo probably told you, I’m the dog trainer.”

Nozomi placed a trembling hand in Eli’s and received a hearty shake. “I’m Nozomi.”

“Ok, Nozomi, let’s get right to it. What kind of dog do you have? What’s his name?” Eli looked around. “And…where is he?”

“His name is Junai and the nice lady in the grooming salon offered to hold him for me while I cleaned up his…mess. She was very nice. Kotori, I think.”

“Those are some good hands to be in. Kotori could wrestle a bear if it needed a haircut. Let’s go pick him up and then I can get a good idea of your situation.”

Eli led Nozomi further towards the back where Junai had been dropped off. The aforementioned groomer had been standing outside the salon when Nozomi was trying to find the clean-up station. She was a soft-spoken girl, but held onto Junai’s leash like a steel clamp. Junai didn’t even try to pull away from her.

Kotori noticed them approaching from the window of the salon and brought out Junai. Eli, who was in midsentence, halted immediately.

“Wow…that’s a big—wow.”

“I clipped his nails for you, Nozomi,” Kotori said with a bright smile. She passed the leash over to Eli, which was probably for the best. “They were really long!”

Nozomi’s blush returned full force and she thanked Kotori for both holding onto Junai and the extra bit of grooming. Everybody in this store was going to be involved somehow, she accepted it. She was going to be ‘that girl whose overpowering dog pooped on the floor.’

Kotori bid them both well and winked at Eli before slipping back into the salon. Now alone with the trainer, Nozomi was certain she was going to be scolded somehow for not having proper control over Junai.

“You definitely picked a strong dog.”

“They were going to put him down a-and my friend sent me a photo of him and I don’t have any pets so I figured I’d just—

“Hey, hey, it’s ok. I’d tell you that you did the right thing, but there’s more you’re going to have to do for this dog to validate your decision, ok?”

“Ok.”

“So you just got him today, right?”

“Yes, and he’s already managed to humiliate me in public,” Nozomi laughed wryly.

“It’s ok. Believe me, plenty of dogs go on the floor. You’re fine. Now, I’d like to see how you walk with him.” Eli handed Nozomi the leash, which she hesitantly accepted. “Walk up and down this aisle right here.”

Instead of walking, Junai had her practically skipping down the aisle Eli had instructed them to go. She could hear Eli giggling to and the desire to evaporate returned, but she was no closer to such technology as she was getting Junai to stop dragging her everywhere.

~

Wow. Eli was almost speechless watching Nozomi get dragged literally everywhere by her massive rescue dog. It was cute the way she struggled to dig her heels into the floor to put up some resistance, but there was no way she was going to be able to hold back a dog of that calibe.

“Alright.” Eli relieved Nozomi of her task and took Junai’s leash. “So, the first thing I’m going to tell you is that all your yanking on the leash makes him pull harder. You also don’t want Junai to ever walk ahead of you. You’re in charge, ok? One way you establish that is that Junai does not get to decide where to go.”

“But he’s so strong…”

“Oh, he knows that too, but he’s going to learn that being big and powerful doesn’t mean he gets to be in charge. I don’t know what research went into your decision to come home with a 200 pound dog, but one thing I would recommend is a pinch collar. It’s basically a metal collar with prongs on it and it’s very unpleasant to pull against.”

“That sounds cruel, though.”

“I understand your hesitation, but I’m going to teach you how to use it effectively. The idea is that we keep Junai from pulling to begin with, and the collar is the consequence.”

Eli happened to catch a glance at the digital clock inside the grooming salon. Her shift was coming to an end, but this girl needed so much more help and as a decent human being, Eli couldn’t just leave her to deal with an unruly mammoth dog.

“Listen. I can see that you need a lot of help—I don’t mean that as an insult or anything, but it’s the truth. The problem for right now is that my shift is ending and I’m on really tight hours. I know I just met you, but if you’re comfortable, I’d like to give you my personal number and maybe do a few private sessions with you. We can meet anywhere you’d like—maybe your house or a park. There’s actually a nice dog park about thirty minutes up the road.”

“Are you sure? I mean, I can pay you for the trouble.”

“No, don’t worry about it. Besides, my private sessions are like $300 and I feel like charging you would be taking advantage of your situation.”

“But…”

“Just buy the things I tell you to and that’ll be enough for me. You already have food and supplies for him, right?”

Nozomi shifted slightly.

“You…don’t?”

“Not yet,” Nozomi admitted sheepishly and once again thrust her face into her hands. “I’m sorry I’m so bad at this! I didn’t know a week ago that I was going to get a dog…it all just happened so fast!”

Not sure what the morally correct decision would be, Eli scratched the back of her head. The owner was certainly clueless, but clueless in an endearing sort of way. More than a few people had come through the double doors of the pet store and received Eli’s immediate reaction of ‘this person does not need a dog’. She sensed some hope with Nozomi’s case though.

“Let me clock and I’ll help you pick out some supplies. It would help you to have some input, wouldn’t it?

“I really, really appreciate your help—everybody’s help. I almost don’t know what to say. I feel like I’ve exhausted ‘I’m sorry’ and ‘thank you’.”

“Don’t worry about it. You’re not doing as badly as you think you are.”

~

Nozomi was beyond grateful for all of Eli’s help. Not just for holding Junai’s leash the entire time, but for dividing all her necessities into a manageable list. She figured out she needed food on her own, but she didn’t even consider chew toys and a dog crate. An extensive toy aisle left her with far too many options to choose from, but Eli was quick to suggest stuffing-free plushes because they’d make less of a mess when Junai inevitably destroyed them. Eli also recommended deer antlers as a durable teething choice, steered her away from rawhide and towards a broad selection of real bones that would also be good for Junai’s teeth. Oral hygiene would have never once crossed her mind.

“You should also go ahead and make an ID tag in the very likely event that he escapes you. Also, I would suggest getting waste bags. They have dispensers that you can clip onto the handle of the leash so if he makes a mess you can clean it up right there.”

The entire time they walked beside each other, Eli’s beauty enraptured Nozomi endlessly. Not only did Eli have the figure of a model and flawless hair to match, but she was incredibly strong. Short sleeves gave Nozomi ample view of Eli’s biceps as her arms strained to manage Junai on his leash. A thirty pound bag of dog food look weightless as she hoisted it over her shoulder. Nozomi had never considered being a thirty pound bag of dog food, but the concept seemed oddly appealing at that moment. Keeping her blush tamed was a fruitless endeavor, and Eli was only making it worse.

~

“Seriously, let me help you to your car.”

“You’ve already helped me so much, it’s really—

“You barely got the dog in here by yourself, how do you expect to manage both the dog and all the supplies?”

“I-if you’re that adamant about it.”

Eli smiled as she finished loading up Nozomi’s cart. She’d ended up using her employee discount for Nozomi’s purchase, which cut the cost by about a hundred dollars. Nozomi expressed her gratitude endlessly, despite Eli’s insistence that it was no big deal.

“So what do you do, Nozomi?” Eli asked as they exited the store. Junai tugged excitedly at the end of his tether, but Eli popped the leash quickly and he stopped pulling almost immediately. Nozomi’s awed expression put Eli on cloud 9.

“O-oh, I… work for a children’s therapy clinic.”

“That’s cool! Are you one of the therapists?”

“I wish,” Nozomi said with a twinge of ennui. “I work in the office. I handle the finances and spend most of my time strong-arming insurance companies.” She laughed suddenly. “You’d think after all of that I’d have the muscle to hold a dog.”

Nozomi led them to her car—a lavender little Honda Accord that looked too small for a person, much less a giant dog.

“How did you cram Junai in this?”

“I’m not sure how I’ve been able to do any of the things I’ve done today, to tell you the truth Ms. Ayase.”

“Please, call me Eli. I’m your friend, not your professor.”

“It certainly feels that way, what with all the educating I’ve received today.”

“Consider it neighborly advice. There’s no $400 textbook or tuition fee.”

“I suppose you’re right,” Nozomi giggled, opening the passenger door so she could push the seat forward. Junai hopped right in and the two women were free to load the supplies into the trunk. Initially dubious of there being adequate room for everything, Eli was surprised when they packed the last box of Greenies into the trunk.

A weary sigh left Nozomi as she leaned against the frame of her car. Eli could see how stressed she was even in the dim glow of the streetlights.

“Hey.” She put her hand on Nozomi’s shoulder, startling her. “It’s going to be ok, Nozomi. You saved this dog’s life and you’re taking the necessary steps to insure that he’s going to have a good life now.”

“I guess I just never considered how…difficult a dog would be. My friend spends half her life at an animal shelter and she totally did not prepare me for this.”

“That’s because at the end of the day she gets to go home and the dogs stay at the shelter. She’s not taking them to pet stores when they’re twice her size and it’s their first day out of jail.”

“I’m going to give her so much shit.”

“Junai will be there to lend a paw.”

“Oh my god, stop it. I just want to pretend like that never, ever happened.”

“Nozomi, do you know how many dogs have pooped on that floor? A lot of things have happened on that floor and we don’t talk about it.”

“I know you’re probably tired of hearing it, but really. From the bottom of my heart, thank you. I would not have been able to do this without you.”

Eli’s heart was positively singing. She hadn’t really thought about it until they’d began really talking to each other and Nozomi started assaulting her with expressions of gratitude, but Nozomi was cute. Painfully cute. So cute that Eli elated in the chance to shop with her and teach her about all the nuances of dog care.

~

Why was she sweating? It wasn’t hot outside, but boy was she on fire. They swapped numbers, as per Eli’s insistence. Eli was persistent in her desire to train Junai and Nozomi could barely form a sentence let alone dissuade her.

The two of them stood by her car for what felt like half an hour with Nozomi kicking herself for not at least cleaning out her car before she put herself in this situation. She hadn’t looked, but she bet there were at least three Styrofoam cups, a quilt of loose papers, and probably a wardrobe’s worth of clothing strewn about the backseat.

Eli wanted to talk to her about a lot of different things, and she slowly forgot about the state of her car and how she probably should’ve put on makeup and a nice perfume before releasing herself into public places where really hot dog trainers worked. Hot dogs.

“So have you really never had a pet before?”

“We moved around a lot when I was a kid, so my parents never let me have anything. Do you remember those little robot dogs? Yeah, I had one before it got lost during a move. Its name was Pepper.”

“I’m sorry to hear about Pepper, Nozomi. That must have been quite the loss.”

“It was tragic.”

Gradually her nerves eased. There was something relaxing about Eli, and maybe it was the same aura that made her successful with dogs. Was Eli secretly training Nozomi? She had a lewd thought before she forced herself to come up with a distraction.

“So how should we go about training Junai? I don’t think I could bring him back to a store without reliving a nightmare.”

“If you want, we could meet at a park. If he pooped there it would be less horrifying. Or I could come to your house.”

Hello, lewd thoughts. “My…house?”

“Yeah, I do private sessions all the time. Some people have aggressive dogs or dogs that are so unaccustomed to public spaces that being in a loud store does more harm than good. It’s perfectly normal. Ah…” Eli paused, but only very briefly. “It’s probably weird to you. I promise I’m not trying to be creepy or come onto you. If you feel more comfortable in a park that’s a great place.”

Nozomi couldn’t hide her blush and she could only pray the night sky washed her face in darkness. “You can…come to my house if you want.”

“It’s really ok if you want to meet at a park. I can train your dog anywhere, provided he’s not too big to fit,” she laughed.

“I want you to do it at my house.” Immediately lamenting the words that fell out of her mouth, she had to come up with a logical reason off the fly to avoid sounding horribly desperate. “I don’t know how he would behave if there were other dogs at the park and I’d likely lose my grip of the leash before we even got to the car. At least we can do the first session at my house so I’ll know how to handle him so none of that happens.” She overdid it, definitely.

“I’m more than happy to pay a home visit. My next day off is Monday, so you’ll have to survive until then without me. If you have any urgent questions or if Junai bulldozes through your wall, hit me up and I’ll see what I can do. I’ve got to get home now, my girl is waiting for me.”

It was as if a professional baseball player had smashed a bat into her stomach. “Your girl?”

Just as she was going down the list of all the ways she had felt personally betrayed that night, Eli’s uproarious laughter both surprised and confused her.

“My dog, Nozomi! My dog! What kind of trainer would I be if I didn’t have a dog?”

Now Nozomi wanted to hit herself with a baseball bat. “Oh.”

“Her name’s Ari and she’s waiting for me to come home and let her out. I’ll call you tomorrow, ok, Nozomi?”

“Yeah,” Nozomi replied, still wondering where she could find a baseball bat at this time of night.

Nozomi watched Eli disappear into her car before deciding to retreat to her own. Junai panted furiously in the backseat and Nozomi rested her forehead on the steering wheel and the events of the day flooded her mind.

“Junai, you shit on the floor and got me a date with an agonizingly beautiful dog trainer.”


End file.
